Some 9.8 per cent of the local adult population suffer from diabetes, using up to 10 per cent of total healthcare expenditure, according to figures released yesterday.

This is expected to increase to 12 per cent of 20-to 79-year-olds by 2025, as the “global epidemic”, closely attributed to lifestyle, continues to grow. In fact, 84 per cent of local diabetes sufferers are either overweight or obese.

Expert diabetes consultant Mario Cachia thinks the cited 30,000 people suffering from this condition is underestimated.

Health Parliamentary Assistant Peter Micallef pointed out that 234 patients succumbed to diabetes in Malta last year.

Yet, as yesterday’s high-profile round table breakfast meeting in Valletta made very clear, it is not only death that sufferers have to fear.

Focused mainly on the eye complications of diabetes, the conference not only dished up a lavish breakfast, but harrowing testimonies of two young women who battled the problem.

One of them was Kate Hirst, who had diabetes since she was five but found it particularly difficult to gain control over her blood sugar levels in her adolescent years.

One day, when she was 23, she woke up and could only see a blurry reflection of herself in the mirror. During breakfast, she noticed she could not read the cereal box.

Her “greatest fears” were confirmed when the clinic established her eye blood vessels had suffered damage. Her eyesight deteriorated rapidly and she slowly lost her independence.

Ms Hirst had to put her life on hold, and although she had graduated, she could not commit to a job with her frequent hospital appointments, and working as a teacher seemed an unlikely prospect.

She lost her appetite, had trouble sleeping and forgot how to laugh – she had all the symptoms of depression.

She later underwent major eye surgery and her eyesight started to improve. In 2004 she started to regain her independence, and could again work towards becoming a teacher.

Eight years on, she considers herself lucky to have had a narrow escape from blindness.

She must still wear reading glasses and, because her peripheral vision was damaged, retaining her driving licence is not an easy task.

For Christine Mifsud, however, the story did not turn out as well. Having had diabetes before she could even walk, Ms Mifsud waded against the social taboo the condition then carried in Malta.

Having been overprotected by her parents, she developed a rebellious streak.

“I fought with my condition, and although I had no problems with injections, I wanted to be like other children,” she told the audience.

When Ms Mifsud grew up, she could eat whatever she wanted and sometimes even forgot her injections at home.

“I lived a double life; when I was at home I acted one way, and outside I acted another way,” she said.

At 19, her life changed overnight. She became pregnant with twins, and her diabetic control went haywire.

“When I was referred to my ophthalmologist, it was already too late,” she said.

Even with laser treatment and vitrectomy surgery, she lost the vision in her right eye, and a good amount in her left.

Instead of enjoying what were meant to be the best years of her life caring for her twin babies, she was left feeling afraid and alone.

With a lot of support from her parents, her husband, her children, whom she has now taught to “take care of a visual impaired person” and a guide dog, she continues to try to live life as normally as possible.

“Now from one condition I have to live with two chronic diseases: diabetes and blindness,” she said.